The state Board of Education has authorized a group to move ahead with plans to open new charter schools in Kansas City.

The board on Tuesday authorized Los Angeles-based Citizens of the World to move forward with plans for the schools.

The group has three schools in Los Angeles and two in Brooklyn. The Kansas City plan calls for opening two kindergarten through first-grade elementary schools in 2016, adding a grade each subsequent year.

More than 130 students whose families moved into the Normandy school district last summer to be able take advantage of the school transfer program will be shut out of the program this coming school year under a policy adopted by the state board of education Monday.

Missouri education officials are seeking an additional $6.8 million to help an unaccredited school district in the St. Louis area.

The State Board of Education approved the budget request Tuesday for the Normandy district. That's the first step in a process that ultimately requires the support of the governor and Legislature to become a reality.

Students started transferring out of the Normandy and Riverview Gardens districts this year under a state law that requires unaccredited districts to pay the costs for students who want to attend other public schools.

The Kansas City school district says it is showing rapid improvement and wants Missouri education officials to upgrade it from unaccredited to provisionally accredited.

Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent R. Stephen Green presented his argument Tuesday to the State Board of Education. Green highlighted Kansas City's finances and improvement on school performance reports.